<Begin Segment 27>

AI: And then, in the papers that David showed me earlier, he had showed me that you had written some letters, that you and Bill had written some letters from camp to the War Relocation centers in the Midwest to see if there might be some jobs, some dry cleaning jobs out there.

MF: Uh-huh.

AI: And so I was wondering, did you remember much about that, about sending those letters to see if there was anywhere --

MF: Well, in the camp there was an office there and we asked if we could be released to go back east and Detroit was the only places that they thought they were, could find employment that easily. And some places they have stated that they have sent people but some people had to wait to get employment right away. They couldn't get it right away but in Detroit he says there's a lotta demand for pressers. And so when Bill got -- we got there, well, we were in the hostel for couple of day -- no, more than couple of days, about a week. Why, we went to the Detroit relocation center and he says, "Sure, come and work tomorrow." But another thing that I really resented was when we got to Detroit, there was a hostel there and it was run by a minister's wife. She was so nasty, very unpleasant person, you know, to deal with public. And she said to me, she said, "Your son can't bed with you," I mean, in the bed, in the one room. "He has to stay with your father." So David not used to that so David had a hard time getting used to sleeping with, not together but sleeping in the same room with a man. I couldn't sleep with my husband. We had to be separated. But we was there. But a minister's wife, being like that? I thought, what a cruel world it is. And she took all our rations, shoes ration and sugar ration just... it was awful. I'm glad we only stayed about four days at the most.

AI: And after that, was when you moved --

MF: She was from Tacoma.

AI: Is that right?

MF: I'll never forget how, how miserable we felt. Bill thought, gee, a minister's wife being like that.

AI: That's sad.

MF: You know, when you're suffering you should comfort them.

AI: So...

MF: She was so high up she thought she was a king. She thought it was a privilege to serve people, not... she didn't think it was a privilege to serve people but destroy or distrust everybody. And Bill felt terribly bad. He said, "Gee, we're in a bad situation." He said, "We should get out soon as possible." So we stayed only about four days.

AI: And then after that, is that when you went to the apartment building?

MF: Yeah, we went to the relocation, I said, "We'd like to move out as soon as possible from hostel." And he said, "Well, there's a good news for you." He said there was a lamp factory that, that turned into a nine-unit, "Would you like to be a manager?" I said, "Sure." So rent was free. But it was just only a, a one-bedroom. And so David had to sleep on the sofa in the living room, but that was okay. Housing was really difficult at that time, and didn't have a refrigerated, refrigerator and we went all over and we finally got one and it was a rickety rack refrigerator but it cost us two hundred dollars at that time, and it was hard to find. And there was a Japanese man that lived in Detroit that the relocation man recommended. And so he came to the relocation office and met us and he took us and we bought our beds and mattress to buy, where to buy. And we bought a new mattress and a new bed and a few other things. And then we got a second-hand refrigerator that's worth only about fifty dollars that's two hundred dollars. But good thing we had a little money. [Laughs] He said, "Cash, please."

AI: My goodness.

MF: And one side of the street was all Negroes living, and the other side was Polish people and they all spoke Polish more than English.

AI: How interesting.

MF: And we have to go to the Negro side to buy a chicken. You buy your chicken fresh and you have them, feather taken out. We wait for that. They boil it and they take the feather out and then we bring it home. It was only about half a block from where we lived. And oh, you ought to see the colored people lined up there. They have real good business there.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.